


Expression

by Ashirene



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Character Study, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, One Shot, POV First Person, Post-Time Skip, Surprises, post crimson flower
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-18 15:22:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29120397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ashirene/pseuds/Ashirene
Summary: She couldn't claim to say she was great at surprises, but Edelgard liked to think that she had slowly been improving at surprising Byleth.Post Crimson Flower Edeleth character study one-shot, First Person POV.
Relationships: Edelgard von Hresvelg & My Unit | Byleth, Edelgard von Hresvelg/My Unit | Byleth
Comments: 2
Kudos: 26





	Expression

I’ve never been good at surprising Byleth.

Not because there’s a lack of things to surprise her with, but because I’ve never been good at surprises. One might think that with my background, I would have had an abundance of gifts and surprises, but… I can’t exactly say that I had any good role models for surprise giving—if anything, the only surprises that I remember have been... well, terrible ones.

But… even given my inexperience, Byleth has never ceased to express her gratitude at the things I’ve tried to show her. Perhaps it’s because she doesn’t want to hurt my feelings, but I also think that given her dearth of exposure to the outside world during her childhood, there were just simply many things that she had never experienced before.

Even back in Garreg Mach, I remember the way her eyes brightened with wonder when she first stroked her hand along one of the many cats that lived in the monastery. Something so simple was enough to transform that faraway, recalcitrant expression that she always seemed to carry into one of gentle fascination, one that was very much grounded in the world we lived in.

I remember the expression on her face when I first took her to the meadows that surrounded the city of Enbarr, the way the corners of her mouth quirked upwards and how it softened the sharp edges of her cheekbones as she took and breathed in the sight of the flowers that did not grow anywhere else in Fodlan.

However, since coming to Enbarr after the war all those months ago, slowly, she’s grown more accustomed to the seemingly ordinary things that amazed her when I first accompanied her around Enbarr’s palace. Perhaps it’s because we’ve both done our best to give each other the experiences that we enjoyed while we were youths—even if those were few and far between for both of us—but I do know this: the essence of what has surprised her most over the years hasn’t changed. The things she loves most are simple, and often, astonishingly easy to create or find.

Still, it took me a long time to think of something for her this year, for the anniversary of the night that I— _we_ —found each other again.

One night, long ago, in that ancient monastery, she inadvertently came across a portrait that I had drawn of her. I was too embarrassed to show it to her back then, but I am sure that she remembers that shameful… encounter. I can’t claim that I am any less ashamed now than I was back then, but I hope that that makes this gift all the more unexpected. I hope that this time, I’ve done a better job of hiding my endeavours from her, so that I’m able to properly surprise her with a portrait of herself.

After all, my favourite part about these surprises is so that I’m able to commit my favourite expression of hers to memory once again.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written as a prompt for a zine -- edited and re-formatted to be posted to AO3.
> 
> I don't write first person pieces at all, so this was a bit of an experiment for me. I tried changing this to third person (my preferred voice), and it didn't sound the same/the way I wanted it to, so here it is in its originality. 
> 
> I still do plan to post my FE3H/Edeleth AU fic soon, I promise; 2020 was an awful year as a healthcare worker, but I've slowly gotten back into writing and I'm determined to post the first few chapters in the upcoming few months.
> 
> Scream about Crimson Flower with me on Twitter @ashera_ (◡ ‿ ◡ ✿)


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